Uncommon Ground:
The Black African Holocaust Council
and Other Links Between
Black and White Extremists

Bigotry Hits the Newsstands

In April of 1994, the Black African Holocaust Council issued a
new weapon in its self-described "struggle" against mainstream
America: a monthly magazine called The Holocaust Journal. A
statement on the publication's inside cover explains that "The
Journal is born out of a recognition of the written word as a
means of helping our brothers and sisters to understand, and
ultimately destroy, those institutions that interfere with the
liberation of all African peoples."

The Journal is published by BAHC executive director Eric
Muhammad, and is edited by April Silver, the director of Akila
Worksongs, a communications and publishing company. Silver is
a former leader of the Howard University student organization
NiaForce, which has described itself as "a group in which
students study African and black history and culture, provide
campus security and reeducate students." In March 1989,
Silver, along with other Howard student leaders, organized a
student takeover of the University's administration building
to protest the appointment of then Republican National
Committee Chairman Lee Atwater as a university trustee.

The Journal is replete with anti-Semitic and anti-white
sentiments; virtually every article in its inaugural issue
contains offensive statements. Most disturbing is the manner
in which they are presented: as self-evident and socially
accepted truths. And, in keeping with Eric Muhammad's stated
goal for BAHC, the articles repeatedly remind Black readers
that they are being victimized by the white community.

The April issue's cover story is a lengthy piece by Eric
Muhammad that purports to chronicle "the rise of Jewish
dominance in controlling America's newspapers." "Brothers and
Sisters," Muhammad writes, "the control the Jewish people
exercise over public opinion is overwhelming.... When we as a
collective press agency are dependent on our enemies' wire
services to inform our people, then we are not really
independent."

In an article discussing the history of rap music, Adeeb Ahmad
Shabazz, the Journal's managing editor, blames the "Jewish
community" for the downturn in popularity of "political,
message-oriented rap" in favor of the more violent "gangsta
rap."[3] Shabazz cites as proof the controversy in the summer
of 1989 that surrounded rap group Public Enemy, and its
"Minister of Information," Professor Griff. In an interview
with the Washington Times, Professor Griff had made a number
of anti-Semitic remarks, among them, "Is it a coincidence that
Jews run the jewelry business, and it's named jewelry?" One
year later, amid an uproar over his statements, Professor
Griff was fired by Public Enemy. To Shabazz, this move
signalled the beginning of the end for politically oriented
rap music. Referring to Professor Griff's remarks, and the
events that followed them, Shabazz writes:

Despite the overall truthfulness of the statements
[made by Professor Griff], the Jews found this to be
a fitting time to divide and conquer by levying the
charge of anti-Semitism against Brother Griff and P.E.
[Public Enemy].... After a short time had passed, the
group reorganized without Professor Griff as Minister of
Information. The Jews had gotten the most vehemently
outspoken music group of the 1980s to dismiss a brother
for speaking the truth!

The article concludes with a call to all Black readers to
"wake up and recognize the plot" and to "pay heed to the
example of Minister Louis Farrakhan."

The Journal's health column, written in an authoritative
tone by the Reverend Phil Valentine, is a blend of racism,
homophobia, and pseudo-science. Valentine describes himself as
a "nature healing consultant and metaphysician," and claims
AIDS is not caused by the HIV virus, but is instead caused by
malnutrition, blood transfusions, and certain types of drugs.
He also writes that "sexual intercourse, kissing, touching
blood or being nicked in the gums by an HIV-infected dentist
could in no way cause AIDS." The danger, of course, lies in
the acceptance of these statements by readers as absolute
medical fact.[4]

Valentine also launches into a criticism of today's media,
claiming that through its "coercion," the public has been
"subtly programmed" to believe that homosexuality is
"inherently 'normal' to humanity." He argues instead that it
is "an insidious disease" that "could be called, in medical
terms, induced-hermaphroditism." Society's acceptance of
homosexuality as "normal," he further explains, can be largely
attributed to "the white woman's frenzied pursuit of the
equality [sic]." (Anti-Defamation League, 6-8)

Footnotes:

3. Shabazz's analysis conveniently ignores the fact that some
"gangsta" rappers, notably Ice Cube, have endorse the
political agenda of the Nation of Islam, and in their music
have indulged in anti-Asian, homophobic, misogynist, and
anti-Semitic rhetoric as hateful as Khalid or Eric Muhammad's.
Shabazz similarly overlooks the current commercial and
artistic viability of political rap groups -- for example,
Arrested Development and Digable Planets -- which don't pursue
a hateful agenda.

4. BAHC appears to be following the lead of the Nation of
Islam in promoting controversial diagnoses and treatments of
the AIDS virus. In Washington, D.C., NOI Health Minister Abdul
Alim Muhammad, M.D., runs the Abundant Life Health Clinic to
treat AIDS patients. This clinic has received federal and city
funds -- over the protests of gay and Jewish groups -- despite
the fact that Dr. Muhammad's AIDS treatment, low-dose oral
alpha interferon, has been tested in the U.S., Canada,
Germany, and Uganda, and has been found to have no significant
medical effect against the disease.

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